August 13, 2006

Can you trust what you see?

I’ve refrained from commenting on the Reuters Photochopping debacle, figuring I didn’t have much new or valuable to add to the discussion. I’m not sure I do now, but Jim Lewis’ Don’t Believe What You See in the Papers offers good perspective on the long history of manipulated (and manipulative) news photography. He links to Dr. Hany Farid’s interesting tampering gallery, where the chronology suggests that fakery is growing more common.
As I’ve noted previously, Adobe has been working with Dr. Farid & his team on technology to detect digital manipulation. Its arrival in mainstream tools will take some time, and even then it’s powerless against images that mislead in other ways. I’m reminded of the aerial shots in the immediate aftermath of the 1989 Bay Area earthquake, zoomed in on a single burning block that suggested more massive devastation; or Fox News’ decision last year during an LA blackout to zoom in on a fiery exhaust plume at an area factory–never mind that it’s that smokestack’s natural state 24/7.
A lack of context and clarification may be ultimately more damaging than faked pixels, given that it’s subjective & maybe impossible to prove. Technology may help sniff out forgeries, but it has to go hand in hand with the audience seeking out multiple, diverse sources of news.
[Update: Rob Galbraith has collected a variety of additional perspectives on the topic.]

I, for one, welcome our new aesthetic overlords…

Creepiness Level = Orange (Elevated): Some Israeli researchers have proposed a tool that, after analyzing a library of beautiful faces, can adjust anyone’s features to make them more beautiful. Umm… no, please?
Yes, my livelihood comes from making a tool that’s used to propagate standardized ideals of beauty, but somehow having the computer make the call on am-I-hot-or-not, then “fix” my various deficiencies, starts getting uncomfortably weird–a little too Fitter Happier. I’m reminded of a quote from Francis Bacon: “There is no excellent beauty, that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.” Here’s hoping it stays that way. [Via Russell Williams]

Lightroom Podcast #13: Derrick Story

In episode 13, Derrick sums up what the group learned on the Adobe Lightroom Iceland Adventure project. George J. writes,

Derrick talks about the thinking behind the Iceland Adventure project, and the idea of “total immersion” for a group of very talented professional photographers. The project provided total immersion not only in the photo-rich environment of Iceland, but also in the Lightroom experience, and we discuss how that experience would work for both the book and for the beta development effort.
Derrick points to some of the specific features in Lightroom that he found invaluable during the trip, as well as talking about some of the areas where the program needs improvement. We wrap it up with some detail on how the experience would feed back into the development effort and ultimately help make Lightroom a better product for photographers.

The podcast is available as an MP3 file via George’s iDisk (under “0809 Podcast”). It’s also available via the Lightroom podcasts RSS feed, and by searching for “Lightroom” in iTunes.